Courage, Bravery, Integrity: Intellect
by GuffeyManipulation
Summary: Prequel to Courage, Bravery, Integrity: Canon and Trinity. The story of the Prodigy from Mistral. The background of a hurt child. The explanation behind the insecure teenage girl. Welcome to Magenta.
1. Chapter 1: The Start of Something New

**As I said, here I am! First chapter of Maggie's journey to Beacon is coming out TODAY! Hope you're all ready for some fucking awesome shit, or some complete garbage, depending on how well I remember my own characters. Any new readers here might want to know that this story is the PREQUEL to another story I've written. It will be following one of the main characters in the story on her journey to her first showing in my fic. Anyways, I won't hold you any longer! Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 _You want to know my story? The story of the girl behind the armor? The story of the intelligent prodigy? Or maybe you want to know a story of insecurity and angst? Any of these are viable beginnings to my journey, but I'd like to go back much farther than that. I'd like to start as far back as my birth. Is everybody ready for my story, the explanation behind the mind of Magenta Everdale?_

* * *

"Keep it up, baby! We're almost there!" The man held his wife's trembling hand as she groaned in pain. The woman was sitting back on the hospital bed, in the process of giving birth to her first child.

"The head is almost out. Push one more time, Mrs. Everdale." The woman took a deep breath before grunting loudly, giving a roar of pain before all of a sudden she laid back in relief. There was silence in the room for a couple seconds before the sudden crying came from the small child in the doctor's hand. It was weak, but enough for the mother to cry in happiness. The doctor accepted a towel from a nurse nearby, wrapping the baby in it before handing it to the mother with a smile.

"It's a girl. Congratulations." The mother smiled in bliss as she accepted the baby, staring down into the little girl's eyes. The baby stared up at her, the crying quieting down as soon as she was touched by her mother. The father stood beside his wife, looking down at the baby.

"A girl, huh? That means-"

"Magenta." The father looked at her in confusion.

"I thought we agreed on Jevaline?" She shook her head.

"Magenta." The mother took the baby's short pink locks in her hand, showing them to the father. He stared at the baby before nodding.

"I think that's a beautiful name." The baby smiled up at her parents, seemingly enjoying the idea of the new name.

* * *

"Magenta, your tutor in ten minutes. Are you ready to meet him?" The six year old girl jumped down from the couch and walked over to the intercom next to the door. She pulled over the stool nearby before climbing up to press the button.

"Do I have to do this? Can't I just play my games?"

"No, you have to be taught something. Now your father paid a lot of money for this tutor, so will you please come downstairs to prepare to greet him?" Magenta sighed quietly before pressing the button.

"Alright, I'm coming." When she let go of the button, she climbed down from the stool and walked to the door of her room. Well, to say it was her room was a bit of an understatement. Her room consisted of the entire third floor of the mansion. The only part of it that wasn't hers was the hallway that led to the elevator. When she got to the elevator, she reached up to press the button to call it up, but the elevator was already waiting, so it opened instantly. There was an old man waiting inside in a tux.

"Hello, Ma'am. What floor?" She quickly jumped in the elevator, and turned to the man with a smile.

"Bottom floor, Bernard. Thank you." The man smiled back at her as he pressed the button. The elevator started it's descent.

"Are you prepared for your tutor? I hear he was a college professor in the past." She rolled her eyes.

"So what? I could get a college degree if I wanted to." He smiled at her knowingly.

"I'm sure you could, but for now, you should listen to this mentor. He might teach you a thing or two." She puffed out air sarcastically.

"Yeah, right." The elevator dinged as it opened to the bottom floor. Maggie skipped out the door. "Bye, Bernard!" She called behind her as she jumped to the dining room where her mother and father were waiting.

"Hey, Mags." She smiled and ran to jump up to hug her father. As much as he loves his family, he's out of the house almost every day due to work. Every time she got to hug him was considered a rarity now.

"Dad! You didn't call to let us know you were coming home! I thought you were in Vale for the week." He nodded.

"I would've been, but the deal sealed before I even arrived, so I got the time to come back home." He glanced back at his wife, who was smiling gleefully. "But, while I was in Vale, for the small amount I was, I found one of the most intelligent men I've met in many years. I think he might provide a challenge for you." The girl blew some hair out of her face in disgust.

"Sure."

"Oh, I wouldn't be so cocky as that, Magenta." She turned to look at the man that had just walked in. He was a slender man in about his 40s or 50s. He wore a tweed jacket(Yeah, like in the movies) and a button up shirt. He had a short beard that was trimmed down on his face. Although he looked very limber and young by the way he moved, his hair was graying a bit in a few places. "I'd say you're going to go down two paths, and I believe that the road less travelled would be the best suited for you." Maggie raised an eyebrow.

"Quoting Robert Frost at me in my own home?" He smiled.

"Normally most of my students learn of his work deep into high school, but for some reason I don't believe I'll be waiting so long for you." He spoke with a determination in his voice that proved he wouldn't give up so easily. He stayed standing as well, instead of like most people, who kneeled down to get on the same level as her. "I was informed the road less travelled was chosen for you the day you were born, but what I believe that there are many roads, tributaries if you will, along this sunken road you walk along that can take you to either complete annihilation or fortune all the same." Maggie smirked at him, starting to walk along the table in the middle of the room.

"And now Dante's Inferno. Very old reference's, sir." She turned to her parents with a smile."He'll do." When she turned back around, she was already putting her hand out.

"Magenta Everdale, who might you be?" He took the hand gratefully.

"Vesuvius Grengin, and I believe this is going to be the start of something truly amazing." She threw up her hands in annoyance.

"Will you stop with the Ancient Literature!" He smiled in an obvious no.

* * *

Vesuvius spent the next 3 hours with Maggie, starting as a teaching process, but the session soon turned into debates about History, Literature, or Modern Politics. The man was surprised to find that he was not fazed by having such deep conversations with a girl that hadn't even reached ten.

Maggie was having a fantastic time talking with the man. She had always tired of speaking down to people whenever anybody had tried to talk to her about intelligence. With this man, the prodigy could actually have an intelligent conversation that both sides could understand easily.

"And with the tax representative in Patch dying last month, the elections still continue to stay at a dead stop. I've watched in on one of the debates, and honestly, both sides aren't exactly the best to represent their people." Maggie nodded knowingly.

"I listened in on the last debate, and it seemed like Williams had a good point on how things needed to change. The people of Patch are a small, but influential people, and with less taxes, that means a lesser schooling for the poor, which to be honest is most of their population. They need to keep what they've got, which nobody seems to agree with." The man listened to her, without taking his eyes off to try and think about what she was talking about.

"Yes, I completely agree with you. None of the politicians seem to realize that change is something that should only come in times of need, unless for advancement."

They spoke like this for another hour before Vesuvius looked down at the watch on his wrist and standing up.

"Why, I believe that's the last of the time I have with you." Maggie watched him with glee from her side of the table as he gathered his papers and put them in a leather briefcase.

"When will our next session be?" He glanced over at her.

"I believe that we should work at least three or four times a week together, setting dates for this will take me a bit of time. How about I'll stop by Friday for our next lesson, and we'll create a schedule together?" She nodded.

"Sounds good to me." He smiled at her before heading for the door.

"Goodbye, Magenta." She waved at him as he left.

"Bye, Vesuvius." Maggie's mother was waiting at the door as he left, moving to the side to allow him to leave. Maggie waited for him to leave before running to her mother to hug her.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! That was great!" Mrs. Everdale laughed happily as she held her excited daughter in her arms. She looked up at her mom with glee.

"Where's daddy?" Her mother's face suddenly changed. She started to bite her lip, trying to figure out a way to tell her daughter where her dad was. Maggie noticed the change, though.

"He's already gone, isn't he?" The mother nodded sadly. Maggie quietly nodded, stepping back from her mother. The little girl pointed up. "I'm gonna… I'm gonna go upstairs." She nodded as she allowed her daughter to pass her to go to the elevator.

* * *

Maggie quietly walked into the elevator with Bernard waiting inside. The old man raised his eyebrows.

"Are you alright, Ma'am?" She nodded.

"Third floor, Bernard." The man hit the button, and the two started going up. It was surprisingly silent, different from Maggie's usual upbeat attitude. Bernard felt like he should say something, but decided against it, silently opening the door to the girl's room. Maggie sulked to the door to her room, locking it behind her. She then went and flopped on her large bed. She cried that night.

* * *

 _What? I lived wealthily in Mistral with my mother and all our servants. Vesuvius came by 3 days a week for my lessons, but they were more like debates. I came very close with the old man… You want to know about my Father? What's there to tell? He worked hard and often to provide the large house and many privileges that my family had. Nobody can blame him for that._

* * *

 **All around short chapter, I agree, but I expect this to pick up when we start getting farther in Maggie's life. The meat is coming after a few chapters, don't you worry. For now, enjoy this starting chapter, and wonder what is yet to come.**


	2. Chapter 2: Loyalty

_Where were we? Ah, right. Vesuvius, My Father, my Home. Things continued as they did for a long time after that. I would sit in my room in my free time, playing the games that my father helped create. I would leave my room to go out with my mother at times, but more times than not, it was to work with my tutor. I liked my life, until secrets began._

* * *

"It was all just an illusion. Time after time, he lost everything, but he continued in order to support his allies. When he found out in the end, that every single loss, every single fight that he dealt with was all just an illusion, brought on by a coma, he took his own life." Vesuvius nodded thoughtfully. He had assigned her to read an old book that might challenge her, but it appeared that Magenta's intelligence had increased tenfold since the time he had started tutoring her. It had only been two years, but she was already more intelligent than most grown adults.

"Yes. You know, they say that this was a true story. The man came out his coma and wrote this book before taking his own life." The small girl laughed.

"Funny. Only a myth." The man nodded happily. She easily looked through every test he put in front of her. Vesuvius started looking through his papers to see what they could work on next, but stopped when the girl spoke.

"Vesuvius, when do you think people will come together for a single cause again?" He thought for a moment before answering her.

"I'd like to think that the next time complete unison will be acquired with peace among the kingdoms through a treaty." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well what do you actually think?" He raised his eyebrows.

"What?" She put a hand out expectantly.

"You said that you'd like to think that, but that wasn't what you actually think. What do you actually think will happen?" Vesuvius smiled.

"I should've known you wouldn't let me get away with that." She laughed and punched his arm playfully.

"Just tell me!" He laughed, but the glee quickly disappeared as he answered.

"I believe that the world will finally come together through hardship and war. People will fight and die, and then come together to resolve their problems in order to evolve as a people." The girl nodded thoughtfully. She thought it was an acceptable answer. "When do you think peace will come among us?"

"I don't think peace will ever arrive totally. There will always be tensions between people that cause the most paranoid to fire first. I mean, we have the discrimination of people of other Kingdoms, of Faunus and Human, of Combat Worthy and Not." The man's eyebrows slipped lower once more in confusion.

"If you don't think peace will happen, then why did you ask when it would come?" She smiled at him.

"Because I find it funny that people think that peace and love is inevitable." She then glanced at the clock in the corner of the scroll she had on her desk. "I believe that's the end of our time." Vesuvius checked the time as well before nodding. He knew that if he agrued with her motives, then he would only be helping her feel more confident in the thoughts. The two of them walked out together, chatting about the work that had been completed and what they could work on in the future. They were stopped when Maggie's mother saw them leaving.

"Vesuvius, are you leaving already?" The man turned to smile at her as she walked over to them.

"Ah, Mrs. Everdale. Yes, the lesson for today ended and I was about to head back to my flat."

"Actually, I was wondering if you'd like to have dinner with us tonight? Ms. Daniels made much too much lobster for the two of us, and there's no point in letting it go bad." Vesuvius nodded without hesitation.

"I'd love to stay. Thank you." Maggie glanced between the two of them before speaking.

"When are we eating?" Her mother glanced down at her watch.

"In just a few minutes. I was about to call you to eat." The girl nodded before brushing past her mother. The woman put a hand on her head as she past, a small form of affection that Maggie had gotten used to over the years. Her and Vesuvius walked together to follow the girl to the dining room.

"How are you doing, Mrs. Everdale?" She shook her head with a laugh.

"Please, Vesuvius, we've known each other for two years. Call me Emily." He nodded silently. "And I'm doing fine. The house feels rather empty at times with Maggie up in her room, but all around fine."

"Yes, isn't John still in Atlas?" She nodded with a wave of her hand.

"Two months now. Apparently he's been working on getting a game sponsored with some important producers. How've you been?"

"I've been doing well. I finished that book you suggested just yesterday." She smiled at that.

"The Huntsman's Dilemma?" He nodded.

"I found it to be a very good representation of how the Great War happened. I was thinking about having Maggie read it next week." She laughed with a smile.

"No need. She's been through it, like every other book in this house." He laughed as they turned into the dining room. The food was being placed on the table as they sat down. Maggie was waiting politely as she flicked things back and forth on her tablet. Overall, the dinner went well. The three attendees spoke comfortably with each other, talking about Maggie's studies and current events. Regularly, Maggie would find the two adults talking with each other more often than with her, but she didn't mind. Maggie ended up finishing up her food first, due to this, and asked politely to be excused to her room.

"Okay, Maggie. Don't forget, no later than 9." Maggie nodded before leaving them in the dining room. Vesuvius sat back in his seat.

"Well, that was a fantastic meal, Emily. Thank you for having me." She nodded back at him, sitting forward with her head rested in her hands.

"Of course, Vesuvius. Anytime." He checked the time on a clock above the door.

"Well, I guess it's my time to leave." He started to stand up, but Emily was standing as well, a hand on his arm.

"You don't have to leave _yet_ , do you?" He raised his eyebrows at her as she sulked around the table to him. "You know, with my husband out of the house for work, the house does seem rather empty."

* * *

"God, you can't even keep a defensive line!" Maggie mashed buttons on her controller as she held off two armies at once in her game. She was playing a strategy combat game, and was controlling her forces with flawless efficiently.

"It's not my fault! They've got AV units on my side! Cobra's can't do much against Hunters!" Maggie rolled her eyes as she sent down an airstrike against a large force of infantry that was surrounding her ally's vehicles.

"They would if you actually upgraded them! Look, I can finish off the units on my side, but my Flamethrowers are running thin, and I'm low on resources. If you send a couple, then I can take care of these guys, then I can send over some Hawks."

"Got it." She received the resources she needed and pulled together her army, pushing her side back before joining her friend's fight on the other side. When both sides were secured, they pushed forward and destroyed all the enemy bases. The game was won. Maggie heard cheering in her headset from her friend before laughing as well.

"God damn, Electra! You're fucking good at this game!"

"Yeah, I'm good at every game." He laughed as she checked the time. 8:56. She cursed as she turned back to her screen.

"Alright, I gotta go. I've got school tomorrow." Explaining to her friends that she was a rich 8 year old girl in a mansion seemed like too much work. It was easier for her to just act like any other kid.

"Damn, well, see ya." She quickly gave a goodbye before she shut off her console. Maggie stretched quietly before taking off her headset, placing both her controller and the mic on the coffee table between the couch and her table. She stood up to close the blinds before getting into bed for the night. When she glanced out the window, she noticed that Vesuvius' car was still in the driveway.

"What?" She looked at it for a minute before leaving her room. She wanted to know why Vesuvius hadn't left yet. She walked past the elevator, going for the stairs instead. Better to take the stairs, than explain why she was walking around the house past her bedtime. She went down to the bottom floor to return to the dining room. When she peeked inside, she saw her tutor's briefcase sitting next to where he was sitting during dinner. After a bit more searching downstairs, and not finding him, she returned to the stairs. She walked up them slowly, hoping not to wake up her mother, whom she couldn't find either. When she got to the second floor platform, her foot caught the top step, causing her to stumble to the ground. She landed on her arm, causing a bit of pain to shoot through it. She rubbed it quietly in pain on the ground before she heard something.

She heard a steady rattling of something in the house nearby. She bit her lip in confusion. Nobody was awake in the house right now, so what was the noise? She quietly stood up and started walking down the corridor, hoping to find the source of the noise. As she walked, she kept her ear against the right wall, because that was when she could hear it best. She continued walking until she could hear the rattling clearly. The sound appeared to be coming from her parent's room. Maggie wondered what her mother was doing before she heard a loud screech. Maggie's eyes widened as she noticed her mother's voice. Was she being hurt? Was somebody in there attacking her mom? Maggie's mind was in a blur as she pushed open the door quickly, rushing in to see what was happening. The rattling quickly stopped as she opened the door, but it also brought on a loud crash and several yells. Maggie surveyed the room until she found her mother in her bed flailing back to cover herself under the blankets. There was somebody else trying to cover themself up as well. Maggie quickly covered her eyes as she realized that they were both naked. Then, she processed the only person that could be naked with her mother.

"Dad? Why didn't you tell me you were home, Dad?" Silence. Then a few quiet murmurs before Maggie finally opened her eyes again. She then saw, in bed with her mother, was Vesuvius. He was staring at her in silent fear as her mother murmured to him to hide. Her mother noticed that she had saw them a second later, quickly grabbing a blanket to cover herself, so she could walk to her daughter.

"Maggie, please go back to your room." She didn't listen, though. Maggie was deep in her thoughts, staring at the man that had just been with her mother. She didn't need to be a genius to realize what was happening, or maybe she did, she honestly didn't know or care. All she knew at that moment, was that it was wrong. She stared at the man as her mother came closer, then at once, she turned to her mother and put out a hand.

"No." Her mother closed her mouth and stopped.

"Maggie, please, please, please go back to your room." Maggie glared at her mother.

"And leave you alone with him! No." She pointed at Vesuvius. "Get out of this house. Now."

"Maggie, stop this and leave at once!" Her mother was getting fed up with her, but she didn't care.

"How about you shut the hell up, Mom!" She yelled at her mother. "And you! Get the fuck out now! I never want to see you in this house ever again!" Her mother was surprised by her aggressive behavior, but Vesuvius merely nodded, reaching down beside the bed to grab his pants. Maggie turned around in disgust to let him get up and put on his clothes. When he had his clothes on, he stood in front of Maggie with a sad look on his face.

"I hope we can work past this one day, Maggie." She snarled in his face.

"What are you still going here?" He sighed in regret before past her to the door. Shen turned to her petrified mother. There was a solid minute before Maggie finally spoke.

"I will be informing Dad of this as soon as I can. What happens afterward is up to him." Her mother burst forward quickly, falling on her knees to her daughter.

"Please don't tell him, Maggie. I made a mistake, that is all! Please!" Maggie looked at her mother in disgust. Begging her eight year old daughter to keep a marriage straining secret for her? Pathetic. Maggie merely turned and left the room. She could hear her mother crying quietly behind her, but she didn't turn around. She closed the door behind her and headed for the stairs. By the time she was entering her room, the tears were already streaming down her face.

* * *

"Hi, Daddy." Maggie had brought up the call with her father on the large television screen in her room. His face was looking at her from a laptop on the other side. He smiled at her, even though he looked exhausted from work.

"Hey, Darling. How's it been in Mistral? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!"" She laughed and smiled like nothing was wrong.

"Things have been little hectic. With Tutoring and all piling up, I've had my hands a little full." She leaned over to pick up the case of the game she was playing the night before up. "Been playing this game you sent lately." He smiled at that. He gave her the new games his company produced when he got them regularly, and since she was usually in the beta for the games anyway, she had gotten pretty good at them.

"Really? How is it? Any kinks that need to be smoothed over?" She shook her head.

"Nah, all good. I kick ass at it."

"Language." She smiled at him.

"I kick butt at it." He smiled with a nod.

"Better. How's Mom been? Why didn't she join you to call?" Maggie frowned at that.

"Actually, that's what I wanted to call you about." He raised his eyebrows innocently. He had no idea anything like this would ever happen. Maggie knit her hands together as she looked down. "Mom…" A million thoughts raced through her head. What was she supposed to say? She was sleeping with my tutor? She was just sleeping with another man? Or should I just get rid of Vesuvius? She finally looked up when her father spoke.

"Is something wrong? You can tell me anything, Maggie." She looked up at his trustful face. She loved him so much.

"Mom wanted to tell me that she loved you. She couldn't make it for the call for some book club thing." He nodded happily.

"Oh, well tell her I love her, too!" She smiled at him grimly.

"I will."

* * *

 _Of course, My father found out when he returned. Vesuvius told my father what happened when he returned, and my mother said nothing. Later, he ended up getting a divorce with her. My mother kept her half of our belongings, and my father got the other half. The only problem was that I couldn't be cut in half. There was a lot of fighting in court, neither wanting me to be in the other's hands. In the end, my father ended up winning out. My mom moved out, and I rarely saw her again. Not that I was angry, though. I resented her for what she did. After that one fateful night I lost two of the three people that meant the most to me in the world. It was later that I lost the last._


	3. Chapter 3: Change at Long Last

_What happens next? Well, that could be answered with a whole lot of nothing for a long while. For the next couple years, I spent much of my time in my room, as usual, but it was different now. It wasn't my oasis from the world anymore. It was my prison._

* * *

There was a dull fire on metal vibration as Maggie welded two fragile pieces of metal together. She had been working on this invention of her's for a while now, hoping to finally get it to work properly. Over the past two years, she had started spending much more time using her brain to use of creative inventing. She had a myriad of gadgets scattered around her room, some long forgotten with dust gathering, and some used every day, placed accordingly. Despite the slight clutter, there wasn't a machine in the room that wasn't completed and working

Other than the one she had right now, that is. After a couple more seconds of welding, she finally clicked off the device and threw up her mask, placing it to the side to study her handiwork. After a couple minutes of diagnosis, she grabbed it up and put it on the scanner next to her PC.

She had acquired the advanced piece of tech a while ago, using it almost individually for creating programs for and programming into devices. After going through a couple files, she pulled up the long line of code that she had prepared for thin scrap of metal on the scanner, and after a couple seconds, there was a small beep, indicating that the transfer had been completed. She quickly grabbed up the card from the table with a smile, studying the surface from a side angle before carefully placing it inside a small black case. She placed the case on the end of the long table she had, beside a group of other small packaged devices.

She then started cleaning up her area with a small smile on her face, happy to have completed another one of her projects. She was about done clearing the area off when there was a knock on the door. She frowned for a second. Then she placed two fingers on the surface of the table, expanding them outwards quickly. On the surface of the table, a touch screen came up with a desktop interface. After a touches, she had pulled up the video feed from the camera outside the door. On the feed was her father standing tall, though she noticed the stubble on his face from another day wasted away doing nothing.

She sighed and moved away from the table, the screen closing when she stepped back. She walked over to the door gingerly before opening it to her father. He smiled at her slightly when he saw her.

"Hey, Pumpkin. What are you doing up here?" She looked up at him before looking away almost a second later.

"Nothing, just a little gaming." He beamed at that.

"Really?! Any feedback on that game I sent up a week ago." She bit her lip quietly. She had played the game for a while, but it didn't take long for her to realize that it was just another version of the same FPS that he had been sending to her for the past three games in the series. It was getting old quick.

"Uhhhh, it's great. No bugs to be found, and a balanced weapon system." She was lying, of course, but her father wasn't the most observant of people.

"That's great! It's really a shame that everybody isn't really buying, though. It would seem that they'd like a game like this."

 _If you spent half a minute actually looking at the games you were selling, then you'd know it was shit._

"Yeah, it's a real wonder." There was a couple seconds of awkward silence between the two of them before Maggie rolled her eyes lightly.

"Was there a reason for this disturbance, Dad?" He hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.

"I was just looking to see how you were. It feels like I haven't seen you in weeks!"

 _That would be because you literally haven't seen me in weeks._

"Well now that you know I'm doing fine, I hope that you'll have a good night." She started to close the door, but the man put his foot in the doorway trying to stop her.

"Maggie, wait!" She pulled the door open again to look at her father with an annoyed look. "Look, I know I haven't been around like I should be since your mother left me, and I know I made a couple bad decisions here and there, but I love you! I worked hard so that you could have what you needed, and now, I was hoping to retire!" She raised an eyebrow, finally curious as to what he was saying.

"Retire? You're only 38." He nodded.

"Yes, but I've made enough money to pay the bills for a very long time. I'm retiring so I can spend time with you! I'm ready to make up all those years-"

"That you have long since missed." He had been getting more and more excited before he shut his mouth abruptly. "You missed out on most of my childhood, Dad. For five years, I've sat in this room with no reason to leave, because there was nowhere for me to go. You were off working, and Mom is god knows where, and honestly, I don't know another kid my age! So you know what you can do with your retirement and savings? You can stick it up your ass!" She glared at him while he gaped at her in silence. After a few moments, he finally came to his senses, looking down in dismay.

"Oh. I get it. I'll let you return to what you were doing." With that, he sulked back to the elevator. Maggie closed the door just as he turned, not glad to see him in such tired sadness, but not caring whether or not he actually felt that way.

When the door was closed, Maggie turned and looked around the room. This room that had changed and morphed to her interests as she grew older. This room that she had been in alone for thirteen years. She had seen every corner of this tiny space, and she was done with it. She hesitated no longer, that final confrontation with her father pushing her to do what she had feared of and dreamed of doing for so long. She grabbed a large backpack from her closet, as well as a suitcase, already packed up with clothes. She had planned this for long enough to prepare for it to finally come. In the backpack, she started placing different small gadgets that she had created in the pile at the end of the table.

She packed all but one thing in the pack, leaving only the single black box on the table. She zipped up the bag and placed it beside the suitcase by the door. She then looked back at the case on the table silently. That was the final invention to get her out the door and on the road that she had been working on, and now that it was complete, she was ready. She snatched it up silently, pulling the door open as she walked to the elevator, bookbag on her back, suitcase dragging behind her, and the card, now pulled from the case, in her hand.

When the elevator door opened, she walked in without hesitation. The younger man was waiting inside, new to working for the Everdale's for the past couple months since Bernard had passed away. He opened his mouth happily to speak with her, but fell silent as Maggie pulled up the blank, black card. The boy stared at it for a second before Maggie pulled it back down, pushing the first floor button on the screen. The elevator brought the two of them down, Maggie staring forward in silence while the man sitting on the stool drooled silently to himself, his mind a blank slate of what it was moments ago. He would return to his thoughts in a couple minutes, but Maggie would be long gone by then.

Maggie walked through the house, flashing the card at anyone she saw on her way out the door. Outside, waiting for her, was the family car. A very nice, but barely driven four door that her father had bought years ago.

Maggie drove away from the large mansion that she had known for years in said car.

* * *

 _I drove to the airport at age thirteen, found the soonest plane to Vale, and flashed as many people as I could that saw me. I thought that if I left my Kingdom, that my father would never find me and drag me home. I used my father's credit card for everything, plane ticket first-class, valet to park the car I'd never see again, even for a pack of gummy bears to eat on the plane ride. From what I could tell, nobody knew that I had taken that plane ride, and nobody would ever find out._

* * *

Maggie walked out of the Vale National Airport a couple hours later, dusk just starting to fall on the large city. Maggie looked up at the city with delight. She had learned a lot about this kingdom over the past couple months, hoping to fly out here to stay, and now she had finally done it. Mistral was behind her, and now she could enjoy the big city of Vale.

After another minute of just looking at her new environment with glee, she pulled out her scroll to get directions to the hotel she had planned on staying at until she could find a place to live. She walked for about ten minutes before she found herself in front of a huge hotel building. It was rather nice and had large fluorescent lights lined around the doorway. She happily walked inside, bags still in tow.

She walked right up to the front desk, for there wasn't anybody waiting in line to talk with the receptionist.

"Hello, and welcome to the Vale Vacation Inn. Are you waiting for your parents?" Maggie shook her head.

"No, I'm here about the reservation I set a couple hours ago. It's under the name Magenta Everdale." The lady frowned and looked at the archives on her computer, and surely enough, she nodded.

"Yes. Well, it looks like you've already been prepayed to stay for the next two weeks." She glanced down at the girl in disbelief for a moment before handing her the small package with the room keys.

"Here are your keys. I hope you have a wonderful stay." Maggie nodded, quickly taking the package.

She started for the elevator. She didn't look back, but she could feel the woman's eyes on the back of her head.

* * *

She opened up the door to her hotel room quietly, closing it behind her without a sound. Even though she knew that nobody knew who she was, she still felt the need to remain invisible. She looked around when she got inside, taking in her new surroundings. It was a rather nice place, fancy furniture, a very nice kitchen area. She knew right away that couldn't stay here long, a couple weeks at the absolute most. She pulled out her scroll as she placed her bags next to the couch in front of the television.

8:23. She had plenty of time before she had to sleep tonight, but then again, who's really checking her bedtime anymore? She grabbed her backpack and opened it up while she walked to the dining room table. She placed it on top, starting to rummage through until she found a small disk about the size of her hand. Maggie placed it on the table, pressing the button mechanism on the top as she down in one of the chairs. The disc immediately reacted to the button, expanding outwards until it came to the shape and size of a small laptop. Maggie smiled as she powered it up.

When her main browser came up, she immediately pulled up her search engine and started looking for local cheap places to live. She hadn't been working for an hour before there was a knock at her door. She turned to look at the door silently, not wanting to answer it, but after a moment longer, there was another knock. It was obvious that they weren't just going to leave. Maggie slowly stood up, grabbing a small large spoon from a kitchen draw as she made her way to the door. There was no peep hole on the door, so Maggie had no way of knowing who was waiting on the other side.

Silently, she waited until there was another knocking, and she opened the door quickly. She had the ladle behind her back when she opened it, but blindly started raising it over her head to attack whoever was on the other side. Luckily, she stopped to look at the quest before knocking them out with it, and quickly put it back behind her back.

On the other side of the doorway was another girl, a little bit taller than Maggie was, and seemingly a bit older. She had dirty blonde straight hair that was roughly spread around her head, and a face full of freckles. She had a large smile on her face when she saw Maggie.

"Hey, there! Are you new to Vale?" Maggie raised her eyebrows at the other girl's blunt attitude, the hidden spoon behind her back in a clenched fist.

"Maybe. How could you possibly know?" She laughed.

"You can tell in the way people walk and talk. You were all stiff-like when you walk, so I just kinda assumed you were some wealthy girl from Atlas, but now I'm thinking Mistral." Maggie glared at her lightly, but was more curious than angered by her.

"And what about me that was so Mistralian?" She smiled at her, her hands on her hips as she leaned to the side.

"How about the fact that you're still willing to beat me in the head with a spoon, even though you're still rich." Maggie's eyes widened, her arm behind her back slowly drifting back to her side, the ladle still in her hand.

"Who are you?" The girl was still smiling away.

"Name's Jess. Well, technically it's Jezabel, but I punch anyone that calls me that." Maggie gave a half smile when she started laughing loudly. It was a high pitched, but very natural laugh. A second of silence passed before Jess leaned down slightly to look at her. "Aren't you gonna tell me your name?" Maggie hesitated.

"My... Uh, my name's Maggie." Jess nodded happily.

"Well, Maggie, got any plans tomorrow?" She hesitated again. Maggie knew that she needed to find a place to live quickly, but for some reason, she felt that she couldn't really say no.

"Uhhh, no, not really." Jess smiled.

"Great! I'll take you around the city, the whole tour of Vale. Believe me when I say that you won't regret it!" She took a step back, but before she could leave, Maggie stepped out of her room a pace.

"Wait! What about your family, or who you really are? How should you expect me to trust you?!" Jess snorted.

"The only family I've got is my bitch of a mother, and even that whore wouldn't try and get between me and a fun time!" She looked around before leaning in to put a hand on Maggie's shoulder. "Look, I know who you are. The girl that's been all over the news? The little rich girl from Mistral that ran from her pretty home to come to Vale? That's how you know you can trust me, cause if I wanted to return you to where you ran, then I would've reported you the second I laid my eyes on you. So, do you think you can trust me now?" Maggie stared at her quietly. News? How did her father already find press to look for her? It all processed through her mind before she nodded.

"Yeah, tomorrow works for me."

* * *

 _I made a real friend that night. Whether or not I knew it at the time, Jess would make a huge change in my life. I would most likely not be the girl I am today if it weren't for her. Hell, I might not have even been alive today! All I know is that she filled the hole in my chest that I had left empty for so long._

* * *

 _ **Sup, guys and gals! It's been awhile, huh? Like a month of nothing? Guess I've been going through a bit more writer's block than I thought I'd have, but that's fine. I'll come out with these chapters as soon as I can, but with work, class, and extra game time(obviously) piling up, there's not much time left for me to work on this. Now, I know you've all heard about Volume 3 being announced to come on the 24th! I'm just excited as all of you, believe me, but I'm even MORE excited that I can return to writing the Canon for Courage, Bravery, Integrity. Yes, I will now be writing 3 stories, piling up from this(which won't live forever, but long enough to tell Maggie's Tale), SPHR(Which will continue until my brain is fried of ideas for the continuation of the story), and over course, the Canon! When I start on Canon, there will most likely be a lot of priority to writing that over my other two current stories for obvious reasons, but I cannot guarantee the regular process of the stories to the episodes as they come out. I like to plan for the future in my stories, to let them become a little more suspency in what's going to happen next, and if even I don't know what's going to be happening in the future episodes, then that makes it damn hard to write for the future. Most likely will the chapters come in sporadic groups along Volume 3 for the story to fully take place.**_

 _ **To all of those wondering "What about "Trinity"? You know, the whole Original Arc you created after the story?." Well, I'll tell you what's happening with that now. As most of my dedicated readers have already seen, I passed down the story to a regular reader SupportTheTeam a while ago, and I thought that sense he had a lot to do as help to move my mind to create parts of the story, he could continue where I left off there. I also noticed that he hadn't written a single chapter since I passed it down all that long ago. Now, I don't know whether or not I'm going to pick it back up or not(most likely not, but we'll see), but what I do know is that it will not correlate with the story whatsoever. Anything that happened in the Trinity Universe will not technically happen in the Canon universe. There were certain events that happened in the original arc, that I care not to write again, or are willing to place them in the canon story, so they will be completely separate things. If you do not wish to be confused between the two if I do write both at the same time, I would suggest choosing to read one and stick to it(CANON, CANON, BELIEVE ME PICK CANON).**_

 _ **Other than all that jazz, there's not really much more to say. Yes, I'm back. Yes, I may or may not stay back for right now, I really don't know. Yes, Courage, Bravery, Integrity is making it's comeback in the future.**_

 _ **DONE. GUFFEYMANIPULATION, OUT!**_


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